Baltimore Key Bridge collapse latest updates: Six workers presumed dead as recovery efforts resume

Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 37, was identified by his family as one of the construction workers who was on the bridge fixing potholes when it collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Mr Suazo Sandoval’s brother, Martin Suazo, told CNN his brother had lived in the United States for 18 years and was originally from Azacualpa in Honduras. He was a married father of an 18-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter.

He added that his brother was also an entrepreneur who had started his own maintenance company.

Miguel Luna, a 49-year-old father of three from El Salvador who has called Maryland home for 19 years, is also among the six people missing.

“[We feel] devastated, devastated because our heart is broken, because we don’t know if they’ve rescued them yet. We’re just waiting to hear any news,’ his wife, Maria del Carmen Castellon told Telemundo 44.

The other victims have not been named, but Guatemala’s foreign ministry confirmed that two Guatemalan nationals are among those unaccounted for after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Those missing include a 26-year-old from San Luis, Peten, and a 35-year-old from Camotan, Chiquimula. The ministry did not name the men.

Multiple Mexican nationals are also missing, a Mexican Embassy official said, although it is not clear how many.

Ms Bowser’s bizarre response drew the ire of social media users, who slammed her for her choice of words.

Read more by Martha McHardy below:

The crew on board the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday morning remain on board, US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier confirmed.

“Crew is cooperating with what we need,” he said. “They remain on board and predominantly an Indian crew and one Sri Lankan crew member on board, but they’re still there and very much engaged in the dialogue and the investigation”.

Two two agencies will work of making the port fully operational again, officials said during a White House press briefing that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Vice Admiral Peter Gautier attended.

“I’ll say in the case of the bridge is that the original bridge took five years to construct that does not necessarily mean it will take five years to replace,” the transportation secretary said at a White House news conference on Wednesday afternoon. “But that tells you what went into that original structure going up again, we need to get a sense of the conditions of the parts that look okay to the naked eye, but we just don’t know yet especially in terms of their foundational infrastructure.”

Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said that 56 containers have hazardous materials on board the Dali, the vessel that struck the bridge. There is currently no threat to the public as a result of the hazardous materials, he said.

The US Transportation Secretary said he’s concerned about economic impact of the port’s closure as officials work to remove debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and vows to reopen it as soon as possible. At least 8,000 jobs are affected as the port remains closed.

Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have boarded the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge and recovered its data recorder, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Wednesday.

The recorder will be analyzed and the agency will also examine whether dirty fuel played a role in the ship’s power loss as part of its investigation into Tuesday’s collision, Homendy told CNN.

Firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was hit with a community note on Tuesday after she suggested the Baltimore bridge collapse should be investigated as a potential terrorist attack.

“There should be a serious investigation into the horrifying tragedy of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. Is this an intentional attack or an accident? Praying for the victims, survivors, and families,” she wrote on X.

Her post was later hit with a community note, a feature that allows X users to provide corrections or missing context to the posts of others. In this case, the note cited a statement from Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley in which he said there is “absolutely no indication” that the collapse was the result of an intentional act.

It also cited Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who confirmed that the crew of the container ship that crashed into the bridge had sent a mayday alert after the vessel lost power, allowing authorities to stop traffic across the bridge.

While the exact cause of the crash is still unknown, authorities ruled out terrorism and said the crash was not intentional.